Swans silverware

By Paul Pickering
CASEY-South Melbourne broke a 16-year hoodoo against Essendon when it cruised to an eight-wicket victory at Maryborough on Saturday.
The Swans reclaimed a spot in Premier Cricket’s top four with an impressive first outing of 2010, dominating the Country Round one-dayer in stifling heat at the Goldfields.
The win also saw the Swans take possession of the John MacWhirter Cup – named after the former Swan and Bomber and current Victorian chairman of selectors – for the first time.
“Besides the knives and forks in our cupboards, it’s the first silverware we’ve had Casey,” Swans coach Mark Ridgway could afford to joke this week.
Saturday’s result was a big step towards the club’s first finals appearance since relocation, and with a relatively easy run home, the fourth-placed Swans have their destiny in their own hands.
First-year batsman Rohan Blandford was the star against Essendon, blasting an unbeaten 82 from 132 balls to guide his team past their target of 186.
Blandford, promoted ahead of fellow young gun Jake Best, endured the 40-plus degree heat for 43 overs, cracking 13 boundaries in just over three hours at the crease.
He joined Robbie Elston (28) in a rapid 89-run opening stand, before playing the anchor role alongside Michael Hansen (44 from 71 balls) in an unbeaten 96-run third-wicket partnership.
Earlier, skipper Damien Wright (3/26) and left-arm spinner Clive Rose (3/29) picked up where they left off last year, snaring six wickets between them to thwart an Essendon batting line-up that included Bushrangers opener Chris Rogers.
Rogers retired hurt after being rapped on the gloves twice by Swans quick Mathew Hawking. He returned after the fall of the eighth wicket, but fell to Brett Eddy in the dying overs.
Wright’s set of 10 overs cost him just 26 runs, with 14 of those coming in one over. Needless to say he was the bowler most feared by the Bombers.
Rose, who has now taken 22 wickets and continues to press for higher honours, was typically miserly and feasted on the Essendon tail.
Ridgway, who lamented his side’s year-ending loss to Prahran as a missed opportunity, was satisfied with the response on Saturday.
The Swans will now play twelfth-placed Richmond, Footscray-Edgewater (15th), Camberwell (14th) and Hawthorn-Monash Uni (17th) in its run towards the finals, but Ridgway is keen to keep his players’ heads down.
He believes this weekend’s clash at Casey Fields is “danger game”, with the Swans needing a win to create some breathing room in a congested top eight.
“There isn’t much room for error in the competition, so we just need to keep winning,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of inexperienced kids in the team, so we just need to stick to the basics. It’s the old cliché, but we need to take it one game at a time, because if we look too far ahead we’ll forget about the process.”